How to Create and Upload Social Media Banners in Photoshop

Social Media Banners are one of the most important visuals that you will need for your social media strategy. In this category, you will find your cover photo for Facebook, your personal or company’s banner on LinkedIn, and your Twitter banner. The mission is to deliver a strong message about your brand, your values, and vision.

If you are going to create them by yourself, you might consider using Photoshop, the powerful Adobe software. It comes with all the ultimate resources that will allow you to get the best results.

How To Create and Upload Social Media Banners in Photoshop

#1 Think about your message and goals

Before doing anything on Photoshop, you will need to think about the concept of your banner by answering the following questions:

This information will define all decisions from now on, so consider them carefully.

#2 Check the social media network requirements

Each social media has its own specifications about sizes, file format, etc, regarding their social media banners, so make sure that you check their requirements first to avoid creating something that won’t fit or be approved when you upload it.

Yes, the concept can be the same across all your networks (and it should be, so to ensure a consistent visual identity), but it will be just a question of making adjustments.

As a general recommendation:

Make sure that the image size is as low as possible without losing quality, not to compromise the loading speed.

Verify if your design is mobile-friendly, as many people check social media primarily on mobile phones and tablets nowadays. Here, you should be very careful when adding text to your banners, as they usually get messed up on small screens.

And for the image sizes:

Twitter banner: 1500 x 500 px

Twitter profile: 200 x 200px

LinkedIn banner: 1400 x 425px

LinkedIn profile: 200 x 200px

LinkedIn company banner: 646 x 220px

LinkedIn company image: 110 x 110px

Google+ banner: 946 x 532px

Google+ profile: 60 x 60px

Facebook profile: 180 x 180px

Facebook cover photo: 851 x 315px

YouTube cover photo: 2560 x 1440

#3 Use templates

I know you are very keen to create your social media banner from scratch. But there is no need to do so, really.

There are many templates available out there with the right sizes already designed for you so you can start from there. So save your talent for a more creative part of the process and download templates from reliable sources instead.

#4 Follow the step-by-step guide

1 – Open your Photoshop and set your canvas to 72 DPI, RGB, and size it according to the requirements of the social media network you want – or upload your template as suggested above.

2 – Add the background image of your choice. You can use just one image or multiple images, and you can insert it as an image or just copy and paste it, depending on the quality and file format.

3 – If you are going to be brave and add some text here, use the Gaussian Blur tool to blur your image until it gets to your liking. Then go for the Type Tool and write away.

4 – Create new layers and add more elements to it, if there are any. There are plenty of free textures and patterns for Photoshop as well. Play with the opacity to make it more visual appealing. Just don’t go too mad or you will compromise the size of your file.

5 – Save it as the file format recommended by the social media network. Usually, JPG or GIF are generally OK. Remember to “Save for Web” to make the compression process easier to you.

The takeaway

Creating a social media banner in Photoshop is much simpler that you might have thought. The process is quite straight forward.

The big deal is what comes before it: the process of deciding what you are going to create and finding the best elements to deliver this message.

So take your time planning and then use the tips to speed up the creational work itself. This is the most effective away to get your social media banners done.